Learning languages effectively
A few practical tips.

2022.04.07 · linguistics

This article touches on a handful of important topics that are vital to learning a foreign language. I’ll refrain from going into specific methods, as if language learning can be explained in a simple recipe-like form. Everyone learns differently, but the points I discuss in this article should be universal for everyone. It’s up to you to find the particular method that works best for you.

Special thanks to Eiliv and Randel for helping me improve this article.

Don’t learn too many languages at the same time

I’ve fallen victim of this in the past as well. There are so many cool languages out there to learn, all with their own story, culture, and interesting features and sounds. Even though this rabbithole seems fun at first, I’ve come to realize that you don’t actually learn anything this way. You only gain superficial knowledge of each language and essentially become a real-life example of a “jack of all trades, master of none”.

There’s no official limit for how many languages a person can learn at the same time, as this is purely dependent on one’s abilities and time available, but if you want to master something, you have to put in the hours, and mastering 10 languages at the same time just isn’t feasible. Instead, as a rule of thumb, find one or two languages that really interest you and focus on them. I’m sure if you’re like me, this does sound very restricting, but at the end of the day, I’d rather speak 4 languages great than 10 languages terribly.

If you do decide to learn multiple languages, make sure you have some “maintenance” time for the languages you already speak so that you don’t forget them.

Proper pronunciation is key

Having a solid understanding of the grammar and vocabulary of the language is obviously very important, but it’s of not much use when you cannot actually be understood due to bad pronunciation. Proper pronunciation makes you more pleasant to listen to, and you’re better understood (or understood in the first place, depending on the language). Of course, you probably won’t manage to get a 100% native accent, but you should try to, even if it’s technically not an attainable goal. A subtle foreign accent is fine as long as communication is not impeded.

To give an example of how wrong pronunciation can be a problem; English is taught in Greece from a very young age, but for some reason, (Greek speaking) teachers tend to not bother with pronunciation at all, hence why Greeks might speak good English on average, but are sometimes hard to understand. A classic issue are the words “sit”, “seat”, “shit”, “sheet”. A Greek will most likely pronounce all 4 of them as /sit/, simply because Standard Modern Greek doesn’t have long vowels or the [ɪ] and [ʃ] sounds.

Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) first. Get a pronunciation/phonology chart for your target language and say each individual sound out loud and try to get it as right as possible. Doing this from the very beginning will make you form good speaking habits. Watch/listen to people speaking the language and try to analyze and mimic their speech. Keep in mind that correct sentence-level pronunciation (i.e., having a natural flow when pronouncing whole sentences) is different from pronouncing standalone words correctly.

Each language has regional accents, so make sure you don’t mix accents together. If you’re not going for a specific dialect or accent, a good rule of thumb is to find material and speak the language in what would be considered the most stereotypical or “standard” accent.

Start speaking early on / challenge yourself

A big mistake learners make is that they abstain from speaking early on, because they are afraid they don’t speak the language well enough to have actual conversations. This is very counter-productive; for one, practice makes perfect — if you don’t speak, you’ll not learn to speak. Second, speaking and reading/writing are different, independent skills.

Speaking introduces new variables, namely, anxiety and pressure, which are legitimate barriers to speaking well. You might be able to read and write a language perfectly, even better than a native, but sound like an A1 beginner when speaking to a real person, which is hardly an exaggeration. The reasons are simple:

Speaking occurs in real time. It doesn’t give you the luxury to revise and carefully think a sentence through, unlike writing. Words have to follow thought instantaneously, and that’s a skill that has to be developed, regardless of how good your reading/writing skills are.
The stress factor and fear of sounding silly hinders your ability to express your thoughts properly. That’s especially true for introverted people.
You haven’t practiced speaking enough, so producing sounds does not come out naturally and your speech has no flow.

In essence, get out of your comfort zone, ask questions, make mistakes, expose yourself, sound stupid and get laughed at. There’s no way around it. That’s all part of the learning process.

Learn by application, not memorization

This can be said for pretty much everything when it comes to learning. Since I’m a programmer, consider the following quote:

The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.

— Dennis Ritchie

We tend to remember the things we need or have been useful in the past. Make sure you don’t try to squeeze in as much vocabulary, grammar and all sorts of irrelevant stuff into your head at once when you don’t really need it, especially if you’re starting out. Truth is, if you don’t put what you learn into practice, you don’t really learn it. Always have real-world conversations as a goal — when you learn something, use it in a conversation and get feedback from native speakers.

Media consumption: a double-edged sword

Being immersed in a language means you’ll inevitably have to consume media, be it movies, podcasts, music. This is a very good way to both see the language in action, and develop an ear for it. However, just passively consuming media won’t get you far. If you don’t put in the hours to actively practice, consuming media will only be an excuse for you to be lazy. Immersion is very beneficial when combined with active learning. [1]

The proper way to combine media consumption with actual learning is to note down the things you don’t understand and study them afterwards. The big advantage of doing this is that you study in an audiovisual way, meaning you associate language with pictures. Our brains are great at pattern recognition, so being able to associate a word with a picture/gesture, creates longer-lasting and intuitive knowledge.

Record yourself

I know, we all cringe listening to our voices, but when speaking a new language, one tends to pay more attention to what he says, rather than how — this means that, inevitably, you’ll make mistakes that go unnoticed when speaking, but might affect the end result significantly. For instance, if your intonation is off, you might end up transmitting a different message. Recording your voice and listening to it afterwards lets you focus only on those details.

Think in your target language

Part of internalizing a language is thinking in it. Start having inner monologues and dialogues in the language you’re learning, name everything around you. You get the point.

Avoid word-for-word translations

Each language expresses things in different ways, and chances are that translating directly from your language, may end up in unnatural-sounding sentences, or sentences that do not make sense altogether, especially if the languages are significantly different.

Consider the following examples:

English: My name is Christos.
Greek: Με λένε Χρήστο (lit. “(They) tell me Christos”).

English: Christos is taking a shower.
Greek: Ο Χρήστος κάνει μπάνιο (lit. “The Christos does bath”).

You get the point. And these are basic beginner sentences — this becomes even more relevant when using idioms.

When learning a language, you have to learn the idioms and structures used in that particular language, and not simply translate words. Idioms are also a great way to improve fluency and get a cultural insight behind the language.

The SRS (Spaced Repetition System) trap

I’m aware of the research being done on SRS, as well as its benefits, and I use it myself sometimes. What I want to argue, however, is that, languages are best learned in context and SRS alone probably won’t provide that. It can be a useful tool if used correctly, but relying on it will give you the impression of learning, when in reality you’ll be grinding your way through vocabulary and grammar, without any meaningful context.

Learning a language isn’t simply a matter of filling sentences on Duolingo or mindlessly memorizing your Anki cards. Those platforms (or better yet, games) should only be used to complement your actual studies, and as a productive use of your time in the toilet or when bored. SRS is not a magic potion that can teach you what people spend years to learn. Languages are more than a flashcard game, and unfortunately, they are hard.

Travel if possible

If travelling is a possibility, make sure to plan a trip and practice the language there once you have a solid foundation. I would go as far as to say that you should put yourself in a situation where you have no other option but to speak the language. This is the best possible practice.

And most importantly…

Have fun learning and be consistent!

Everything I rambled about in this article is all fine, but it’s totally useless if you are not consistent with your learning. Languages, like any other skill, take patience, practice and consistent efforts in order to master. Instead of studying for 7 hours once a week, study 20, 30, 40 minutes daily. The amount of time you dedicate to learning will determine how fast you’ll learn, but consistency will determine whether or not you will learn at all.

Notes

A good example of this is people who grew up in billingual families, but never learned to speak their second language. They might be able to understand the language perfectly, but are unable to speak. That’s because they never actively practiced learning and using the language, so they ended up only knowing how to recognize phrases and words they’ve been hearing over and over.

Learning languages effectively A few practical tips.

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